I Want My Ex to Admit She Cheated!

I was divorced several months ago and although I was stunned when my wife left me, I made the best of things and made certain we had a drama-free divorce and maintained a good relationship so we could successfully co-parent our two young children, both of whom are happy and thriving now.

Yes, I read your blog, and you are the reason I was able to achieve this feat in the midst of my anguish and worry. Thanks for that.

I recently began to suspect my wife was cheating during our marriage (Readers: I told Matt this when he first contacted me about his sudden divorce a year ago but he didn’t believe me. Believe me, sometimes I truly do hate being right all the time).

I’ve started to do some investigating such as talking to her friends, looking at travel records, phone and credit card bills, and it seems pretty obvious what was going on.

My question for you is: how do get her to admit this? After being confronted with the evidence all she would admit to is an emotional affair but she swears it was never physical even though they met several times in another city. That made me more angry so I have been digging deeper and the more she denies it the worse I feel.

Her father worships her as his little princess and I want him to know – I want him to know what she did to our marriage and that the divorce was not my fault! I think I’m becoming a little obsessed with getting the truth out of her. What do you suggest for making this happen?

Matt

Dear DoorMatt:

This is a great question so thank you for trusting me with it and for speaking with me at length on the subject. Readers, you should know the following:

1. Matt is currently dating a woman he feels is a great match for him;2. His post-divorce and co-parenting relationship with his ex-wife was up until recently very good, but lo and behold, suddenly it has become quite strained; and3. He has a demanding job, good friends and lovely children. In other words, he isn’t lacking for things to take up his time and efforts.

Matt, I’ll reiterate what I told you when we spoke:

There is no upside to forcing your wife into a dramatic confession as to the extent of her waywardness. Much like Rudy Giuliani when he opens his mouth to convince us he is not in the throes of jihadi-induced dementia, you are only making things worse.

You already know what you claim you need to know. Do we need Elizabeth Taylor to rise from the grave and admit she had questionable taste in men, or Katy Perry to admit she is annoying?

No.

You came to the right person for advice, but not for how to force your wife into a full confession. Try Dick Cheney for those methods, although I hear they don’t work well. Instead you need a knock upside the head with my iPad, upon which I am drafting this piece from an undisclosed location in Key Biscayne. Here, I’ll prove it…

The opposite of love isn’t hate: it’s indifference. Your feelings towards your ex-wife are exactly the opposite of indifference so get over it and begin the new life in front of you instead of remaining mired in suspicion and bitterness and phone records.

Since we spent so much time talking about this, I can hear you whining in my perfectly-bronzed ear that you won’t be able to move on until you know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I disagree.

You know enough from all the meticulous information-gathering you have conducted, my little Sherlock wannabe.

So now what? Do you want to keep pressing this matter and engaging in behavior that comes off as unhinged and stalkerish for the unseen but inevitable purpose of ruining the childhood of those two little people I know you love so much?

Pardon my French, but that’s fucking crazy.

As for contacting your former father-in-law for vindication, that’s about as useful as lancing a boil with a dirty needle from an Ebola ward in Nigeria. What right do you have to come between a father and his daughter?

None.

If my son were in your wife’s shoes years from now and his ex-wife came to me to tell me what a shit he was during the marriage, I’d tell her exactly where in her posterior she could enthusiastically insert and manipulate the nearest ankus.

You’d be better served exploring with your (God I hope you have one) therapist the reasons why this “truth” is so important to you and even trying to understand why she strayed. The truth is rarely presented in perfect black and white, but rather 50 shades of grey.*

The answers to those questions may enlighten and surprise you, making room for greater personal growth and advancement past the pain of your divorce.

In the meantime, those children are what matter now, not your bruised ego. While I commend you for taking my advice many months ago on how to go about this divorce, I will hereby disown and disembowel you if your next step is to destroy the healthy and happy co-parenting paradigm you share with the mother of your kids.

Seriously, I’ll mess you up. Don’t make me come over there.

Work on YOU, not HER. And put that new relationship on hold for a while until you process and move on from your marriage because if this woman is truly a good fit for you** your current impression of Scotland Yard’s finest will surely doom your new sexual gig to failure.

The next time you find yourself tempted to delve into the past instead of leaping into the future, I implore you to find the nearest photo of your two children, look at it, and remember what is really important here:

Not your “truth.”

Not your ex-wife’s “truth.”

What’s critical is the happy childhood and adulthood your kids deserve. Going after your ex is not in their best interests no matter how much of a duplicitous bitch you may think she is. Never forget she’s the mother of your children, so once you start publicly labeling her a whore you call into question half of who these sweet little people are.

–Robin

*Shameless attempt to get some traction to that slutty movie that I’ve heard is quite popular.

This Post Has 2 Comments

Ankus: Elephant goad consisting of a sharp spike and hook mounted on the end of a heavy stick.
Jeez, Robin, that’s gonna leave a mark.

KeithFebruary 27, 2015 at 4:05 am

Matt… I’ve walked through this valley myself. It is important to us guys to figure out what in the fuck just happened… and then move on. The devil does live in those details you seek. It becomes insatiable and you’ll get to a point when you find what you need in order to be satisfied in your own mind…. but your X doesn’t give a shit about you as proven by her actions… and therefore will never admit what she did, and therefore even more defines how insignificant she is, and how much less important the need for her to do ANYTHING (including confession) matters. Robin’s right, focus on those kids. Your X is now just someone you used to know. Good luck. The sun does come out eventually…